17 U.S.C. § 511 — Liability of States, instrumentalities of

Page 174 TITLE 17—COPYRIGHTS § 511 Editorial Notes AMENDMENTS 1999—Pub. L. 106–113, § 1000(a)(9) [title I, § 1011(a)(1)], substituted ‘‘programming’’ for ‘‘programing’’ in sec- tion catchline. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 106–113, § 1000(a)(9) [title I, § 1011(a)(3)], substituted ‘‘statutory’’ for ‘‘compulsory’’. § 511. Liability of States, instrumentalities of States, and State officials for infringement of copyright (a) IN GENERAL.—Any State, any instrumen- tality of a State, and any officer or employee of a State or instrumentality of a State acting in his or her official capacity, shall not be immune, under the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitu- tion of the United States or under any other doctrine of sovereign immunity, from suit in Federal court by any person, including any gov- ernmental or nongovernmental entity, for a vio- lation of any of the exclusive rights of a copy- right owner provided by sections 106 through 122, for importing copies of phonorecords in viola- tion of section 602, or for any other violation under this title. (b) REMEDIES.—In a suit described in sub- section (a) for a violation described in that sub- section, remedies (including remedies both at law and in equity) are available for the violation to the same extent as such remedies are avail- able for such a violation in a suit against any public or private entity other than a State, in- strumentality of a State, or officer or employee of a State acting in his or her official capacity. Such remedies include impounding and disposi- tion of infringing articles under section 503, ac- tual damages and profits and statutory damages under section 504, costs and attorney’s fees under section 505, and the remedies provided in section 510. (Added Pub. L. 101–553, § 2(a)(2), Nov. 15, 1990, 104 Stat. 2749; amended Pub. L. 106–44, § 1(g)(6), Aug. 5, 1999, 113 Stat. 222; Pub. L. 107–273, div. C, title III, § 13210(4)(C), Nov. 2, 2002, 116 Stat. 1909.) Editorial Notes CONSTITUTIONALITY For information regarding the constitutionality of certain provisions of subsection (a) of this section, see the Table of Laws Held Unconstitutional in Whole or in Part by the Supreme Court on the Constitution Anno- tated website, constitution.congress.gov. AMENDMENTS 2002—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 107–273 substituted ‘‘122’’ for ‘‘121’’. 1999—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 106–44 substituted ‘‘121’’ for ‘‘119’’. Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE Section effective with respect to violations that occur on or after Nov. 15, 1990, see section 3 of Pub. L. 101–553, set out as an Effective Date of 1990 Amendment note under section 501 of this title. § 512. Limitations on liability relating to material online (a) TRANSITORY DIGITAL NETWORK COMMUNICA- TIONS.—A service provider shall not be liable for monetary relief, or, except as provided in sub- section (j), for injunctive or other equitable re- lief, for infringement of copyright by reason of the provider’s transmitting, routing, or pro- viding connections for, material through a sys- tem or network controlled or operated by or for the service provider, or by reason of the inter- mediate and transient storage of that material in the course of such transmitting, routing, or providing connections, if— (1) the transmission of the material was ini- tiated by or at the direction of a person other than the service provider; (2) the transmission, routing, provision of connections, or storage is carried out through an automatic technical process without selec- tion of the material by the service provider; (3) the service provider does not select the recipients of the material except as an auto- matic response to the request of another per- son; (4) no copy of the material made by the serv- ice provider in the course of such intermediate or transient storage is maintained on the sys- tem or network in a manner ordinarily acces- sible to anyone other than anticipated recipi- ents, and no such copy is maintained on the system or network in a manner ordinarily ac- cessible to such anticipated recipients for a longer period than is reasonably necessary for the transmission, routing, or provision of con- nections; and (5) the material is transmitted through the system or network without modification of its content. (b) SYSTEM CACHING.— (1) LIMITATION ON LIABILITY.—A service pro- vider shall not be liable for monetary relief, or, except as provided in subsection (j), for in- junctive or other equitable relief, for infringe- ment of copyright by reason of the inter- mediate and temporary storage of material on a system or network controlled or operated by or for the service provider in a case in which— (A) the material is made available online by a person other than the service provider; (B) the material is transmitted from the person described in subparagraph (A) through the system or network to a person other than the person described in subpara- graph (A) at the direction of that other per- son; and (C) the storage is carried out through an automatic technical process for the purpose of making the material available to users of the system or network who, after the mate- rial is transmitted as described in subpara- graph (B), request access to the material from the person described in subparagraph (A), if the conditions set forth in paragraph (2) are met. (2) CONDITIONS.—The conditions referred to in paragraph (1) are that— (A) the material described in paragraph (1) is transmitted to the subsequent users de- scribed in paragraph (1)(C) without modifica- tion to its content from the manner in which the material was transmitted from the per- son described in paragraph (1)(A);